Friedman labeled it thus because he believed that the depression lasted so long due to the Federal Reserve's mismanagement. He argued that the Reserve contracted the monetary supply dramatically, prolonging the Depression, which Friedman claims could have been over by 1931.[3]

Economists such as Paul Krugman refer to the similarly named (and sometimes confused with) Great Compression as a period during which economic equality rose due to the progressive tax policies instituted during the years of WWII and the policies of the Roosevelt Administration.